Work Out like Andy Murray

My new year's resolution is not just to exercise, but to exercise like one of the tennis professionals - Roger So

The Rovo team wished and wishes Roger all the best with the realizing of his rather interesting new year's resolution. Speaking about a professional fitness regime for a tennis professional, we believe that the one followed by Andy is both simple and effective, and therefore one that should be emulated by Roger. Simple - because it is not centred in the gym and hence does not involve gym workouts that may not be intuitive enough to be done properly by oneself. Effective - because Andy Murray has become one of the fittest tennis players on the tour by following such regime. Andy Murray is after-all supposedly the best counter-puncher on the tour (supposedly because we the Rovo team believe that Nadal and Djokovic are better counter-punchers, but for some reason the 'counter-puncher' label almost always applies to Murray).

Side to Side Service Box Touch

As can be seen in the above video from 0:11 to 0:44, this exercise requires a player to touch each side of the service box as fast as he or she can in half-minute intervals. This typically performed by Murray amongst a series of other drills, for about 3 sets.

Side-to-Side Jumps

This drill can be seen in the above video from 0:44 to 1:14. Although his fitness coach (Jez Green) uses a rope, a box is typically used for jumping over. This is a very good exercise for building lower-body explosive power. The thighs and calves are the primary muscles worked and strengthened, and if your fitness goals are tailored towards better tennis play, you would find comfort in the fact that this exercise adds greater power and lift to a player’s serve or first step movement.

Some Medicine Ball (Murray-style)

In the last segment of the video, Murray can be seen throwing the medicine ball from one sideline to the next into a 'coned-out' target area. Throwing the medicine ball mainly works the core muscles of the thrower.

Figure 8

In the above video, Murray is seen to be working on a side to side ‘Figure 8’ drill where he has to move around both cones in a ‘Figure 8’ pattern. Notice, this drill requires fast movements (both cross-overs and lateral steps), as well as sudden and quick changes in direction, in order to avoid hitting either of the cones. This exercise is excellent for improving a player's reaction time!

Resistance Band Regimen (Murray-style)

In the first 30 seconds of the above video, one of Murray’s fitness trainers uses a resistance band tied to his waist to add serious additional resistance to his body. Under such strain, Murray performed a series of rapid burst-sprints on the tennis court. These resistance bands are excellent strength-trainers because the extra resistance as a result of being tied to such, forces the body to compensate by strengthening the muscles used for sprinting to a greater extent than one without the resistance of the band.

Once the band is removed and a player has performed these exercises over a period of time, the player will find that accelerating and sprinting is a much easier task (since the body is now accustomed to sprinting with resistance attached).

The Sprints (Classically Murray)

Andy Murray's sprint training is the most distinguished trademark of Andy Murray's fitness regime. As this is ridiculously gruelling, we only recommend doing this should you have a long history of enduring intense workout hardship. To make it less vague, I would personally not try this if I am not able to run 5KM everyday and feel healthy by the week's end. The 20 x 100m is just variant of the sprints he does. He also does higher reps of 50m and shorter reps of longer distances (going all the way up to 400m per rep).

We hope to have left you either enlightened or inspired by this, if not both. Oh, and happy new year!

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